Commercial photography is probably best defined as any photography for which the photographer is paid for images rather than works of art.
In this light money could be paid for the subject of the photograph or
the photograph itself. Wholesale, retail, and professional uses of
photography would fall under this definition. The commercial
photographic world could include:
- Advertising photography: photographs made to illustrate and usually sell a service or product. These images, such as packshots, are generally done with an advertising agency, design firm or with an in-house corporate design team.
Definition
A work of art in the visual arts is a physical two- or three-
dimensional object that is professionally determined or other wise
considered to fulfill a primarily independent aesthetic function. A singular art object is often seen in the context of a larger art movement or artistic era, such as: a genre, aesthetic convention, culture, or regional-national distinction. It can also be seen as an item within an artist's "body of work" or oeuvre. The term is commonly used by: museum and cultural heritage curators, the interested public, the art patron-private art collector community, and art galleries.
Chinese Jade ornament with grapes vine,
Lead lightwindow from the 1920s
Gold and enamel purse clasp, Saxon
Physical objects that document immaterial or conceptual art works, but do not conform to artistic conventions can be redefined and reclassified as art objects. Some Dada and Noe-Dada conceptual and ready made works have received later inclusion. Also, some architectural renderings and models of unbuilt projects, such as by Vitruvius, Leonardo da Vinci, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Frank Gehry, are other examples.
The products of environmental design, depending on intention and execution, can be "works of art" and include: land art, site-specific art, architecture, gardens, landscape architecture, installation art, rock art, and megalithic monuments.
Theories
Marcel Duchamp
critiqued the idea that the work of art should be a unique product of
an artist's labor, representational of their technical skill and/or
artistic caprice.
Theorists have argued that objects and people do not have a constant
meaning, but their meanings are fashioned by humans in the context of
their culture, as they have the ability to make things mean or signify
something.
Distinctions
The original Fountain by Marcel Duchamp, 1917, photographed by Alfred Stieglitz at his 291 after the 1917 Society of Independent Artists exhibit.
Some art theorists and writers have long made a distinction between the physical qualities of an art object and its identity-status as an artwork. For example, a painting by Rembrandt has a physical existence as an "oil painting on canvas" that is separate from its identity as a masterpiece "work of art" or the artist's magnum opus.
Many works of art are initially denied "museum quality" or artistic
merit, and later become accepted and valued in museum and private
collections. Works by the Impressionists and non-representational abstract artists are examples. Some, such as the "Readymades" of Marcel Duchamp including his infamous 'urinal "Fountain'", are later reproduced as "museum quality repli
Cinematography
With David Fincher’s “The Social Network” sweeping
the Golden Globes and Tom Hooper’s “The King’s Speech” pulling an upset
at the Director’s Guild of America, early 2011 has rightly been dubbed
by critic Pete Hammond “one of the most schizophrenic awards seasons in
recent memory.” Given such a competitive field, any number of outcomes
is possible at the Academy Awards on February 27. Even setting aside
traditional heavy-hitters like “Best Picture” and “Best Directing,” many
of the less-heralded awards are also hotly contested. One of the most
exciting of these races is the fight for “Best Cinematography,” where
rarely have all five nominees been of such similarly high caliber.
But
what exactly is cinematography? Most moviegoers have only a vague
notion of this key aspect of filmmaking, for which even Webster’s
dictionary gives an unhelpfully nebulous definition: “the art or science
of motion-picture photography.” To remedy this confusion, an Oscar
primer is in order.
The cinematographer—also known as the Director
of Photography, or “DP”—though one of the most obscure members of the
production team, is responsible for all the visual elements of a film.
He or she makes every creative choice related to composition, lighting,
and camera motion—anything that audiences can see in a given shot. The
DP determines everything from color to depth-of-field—how much of the
shot is in focus versus how much is blurry—from zoom to the positioning
of people and objects within any given frame.
Needless to say,
this is no simple task. From choosing the lenses and film stock—will the
film be grainy? lush?—to lighting the set and instructing the camera
operator, the cinematographer is one of the movie director’s closest
collaborators and as such DPs often accompany directors from project to
project. Polish native Janusz Kaminski, for example, has worked on every
Steven Spielberg film since “Schindler’s List.” With the right
combination of creativity, technological savvy, attention to detail, and
a touch of good fortune, DPs can produce visually stunning works—the
finest of which receive Academy Award nominations for “Best
Cinematography.” Who deserves to take home the statue this year? Let’s
take a closer look at the competitors.
In “Black Swan,” DP Matthew
Libatique paints the screen with rich lighting and a broad range of
strong, emotionally charged colors. The rollercoaster psychodrama of the
film is realized through a mixture of gritty steady-cam and handheld
shots, while for the dance scenes, long takes with complicated
choreography—for both actors and camera operators—give the movie a
genuinely lyrical feel. But in matters of shot composition and its
effect on audiences, one can question Libatique’s judgment. For one,
there is the greatly overused shot of Natalie Portman walking with the
camera behind her at shoulder-height, placing her distinctive ballerina
hair bun in the center of the frame. The frequent recurrence of this
shot, aside from its tediousness, overplays Portman’s identity as a
ballerina, effectively shoving this element of her character down
audience members’ throats.
Tedium poses no such difficulties for “Inception,”
which inhabits a stylistic realm all its own. The exploratory,
exhibitionist, and technological feel of the film’s dream world is
contrasted with the warm, more earthy sensibility of reality in DP Wally
Pfister’s impressive vision. Then again, are the film’s spectacular
visuals really attributable to cinematography? Or are they the work of
the movie’s special effects team? Perhaps Pfister is getting more credit
than he deserves—although the aid of revolutionary visual effects
didn’t prevent the Academy from rewarding DP Mauro Fiore for last year’s
“Avatar.”
While “The Social Network” has been lauded more for its
social commentary than its cinematography, one shouldn’t short change
DP Jeff Cronenweth’s contribution. His choices of color palette lend an
authentically New England look to a recreated Harvard, and his
compositional choices make shots of the less-than-engaging activity of
computer programming look like stylized art. However, there are moments
when the film feels overly produced, for no discernible reason.
Excessive use of green filters and extremely shallow depths-of-field do
little to advance the story, and give the impression of stylization for
the sake of being stylized.
“The King’s Speech” takes classical
cinematography and turns it on its head, to great effect. DP Danny Cohen
virtually abandons the traditional shot-reverse-shot style of
conversation—heads are on the wrong sides of the screen, actors’ noses
are pressed up against the frame line, backgrounds take up 80% of the
screen—and this unsettling style perfectly captures the internal tension
and discomfort of the film’s speech-challenged protagonist. Everyday
occurrences and interactions are infused with awkwardness for audiences
just as they are for the character.
While Cohen’s work is indeed
impressive, it’s hard to argue with the mastery of
eight-time-Oscar-nominee DP Roger Deakins in “True Grit.” His depictions
of an undomesticated outback are nothing short of exquisite, while his
subtle ability to set the mood with color is unparalleled. If there’s a
favorite, Deakins is it—indeed, Tim Appelo of The Hollywood Reporter has
argued that the film’s courtroom scene alone, where a craggy one-eyed
Jeff Bridges is illuminated by a glorious spillage of sunlight, merits
an Oscar.
In the end, it should come down to “The King’s Speech”
and “True Grit.” What could tip the scales? Well, “True Grit” is
Deakins’s ninth nomination—many of those coming from his prior
collaborations with Joel and Ethan Coen—and the exceedingly talented
artist has yet to take home the statue; a win for him would thus be both
timely and well-deserved. On the other hand, Danny Cohen is a relative
newcomer to cinema, with plenty of future opportunities to blossom and
receive commendation. That said, in “The King’s Speech,” he demonstrates
undeniable ingenuity and boldness in a limited environment—while
Deakins had the gorgeous landscapes of the Midwest at his disposal,
Cohen was largely restricted to indoor talking heads. How does one
separate skill from setting?
Come February 27, it seems as though
Oscar voters for “Best Cinematography” will have as many factors to
consider as the DP does when shooting a film. And while the
qualifications of the category and the merits of its nominees may be
deconstructed, the ultimate winner remains as mysterious as ever.
Hopefully, though, readers will now understand the accomplishment of the
victor when he or she is crowned.
Contents
- 1 History
- 1.1 Film technique
- 1.2 Effects
- 1.3 Double exposure
- 1.4 Other special techniques
- 2 The cinematographer
- 3 Aspects
- 3.1 Image sensor and film stock
- 3.2 Filters
- 3.3 Lens
- 3.4 Depth of field and focus
- 3.5 Aspect ratio and framing
- 3.6 Lighting
- 3.7 Camera movement
- 4 Special effects
- 5 Personnel
- 6 Evolution of technology: new definitions
- 7 See also
- 8 References
- 9 External links
History
Further information: History of film
Cinematography is an art form in the field of film making. Although the exposing of images on light-sensitive elements dates to the early 19th century,[4] motion pictures demanded a new form of photography and a new aesthetic.
On June 19, 1873, Eadweard Muybridge successfully photographed a horse named "Sallie Gardner"
in fast motion using a series of 24 stereoscopic cameras. The cameras
were arranged along a track parallel to the horse's, and each camera
shutter was controlled by a trip wire triggered by the horse's hooves.
They were 21 inches apart to cover the 20 feet taken by the horse
stride, taking pictures at one thousandth of a second.[5]
Nine years later, in 1882, American scientist Étienne-Jules Marey
invented a chromatographic gun, which was capable of taking 12
consecutive frames a second, recording all the frames of the same
picture. The second experimental film, Roundhay Garden Scene, filmed by Louis Le Prince on October 14, 1888 in Roundelay, Leeds, England, is the earliest surviving motion picture. The first though to design a successful apparatus was W. K. L. Dickson, working under the direction of Thomas Alva Edison, called the Kinetograph,
and patented in 1891. This camera took a series of instantaneous
photographs on standard Eastman Kodak photographic emulsion coated onto a
transparent celluloid strip
35 mm wide. The results of this work were first shown in public in
1893, using the viewing apparatus also designed by Dickson, and called
the Kinetoscope.
Contained within a large box, only one person at a time looking into it
through a peephole could view the movie. It was not a commercial
success but in the following year, Charles Francis Jenkins and his projector, the Phantoscope,made a successful audience viewing while Louis and Auguste Lumière perfected the Cinematography, an apparatus that took, printed, and projected film in Paris in December 1895.
Film technique
Georges Méliès (left) painting a backdrop in his studio
The first film cameras were fastened directly to the head of a tripod
or other support, with only the crudest kind of levelling devices
provided, in the manner of the still-camera tripod heads of the period.
The earliest film cameras were thus effectively fixed during the shot,
and hence the first camera movements were the result of mounting a
camera on a moving vehicle. The first known of these was a film shot by a Lumiere cameraman from the back platform of a train leaving Jerusalem
in 1896, and by 1898 there were a number of films shot from moving
trains. Although listed under the general heading of "panoramas" in the
sales catalogs of the time, those films shot straight forward from in
front of a railway engine were usually specifically referred to as "phantom rides".
In 1897, Robert W. Paul
had the first real rotating camera head made to put on a tripod, so
that he could follow the passing processions of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee in one uninterrupted shot. This device had the camera mounted on a vertical axis that could be rotated by a worm gear driven by turning a crank handle, and Paul put it on general sale the next year. Shots taken using such a "panning" head were also referred to as "panoramas" in the film catalogs of the first decade of the cinema.
The standard pattern for early film studios was provided by the
studio which Georges Méliès had built in 1897. This had a glass roof and
three glass walls constructed after the model of large studios for
still photography, and it was fitted with thin cotton cloths that could
be stretched below the roof to diffuse the direct ray of the sun on
sunny days. The soft overall light without real shadows that this
arrangement produced, and which also exists naturally on lightly
overcast days, was to become the basis for film lighting in film studios
for the next decade.
Effects
Unique among all the one minute long films made by the Edison
company, which recorded parts of the acts of variety performers for
their Kinetoscope viewing machines, was The Execution of Mary Queen of Scots.
This showed a person dressed as the queen placing her head on the
execution block in front of a small group of bystanders in Elizabethan
dress. The executioner brings his axe down, and the queen's severed head
drops onto the ground. This trick was worked by stopping the camera and
replacing the actor with a dummy, then restarting the camera before the
axe falls. The two pieces of film were then trimmed and cemented
together so that the action appeared continuous when the film was shown.
This film was among those exported to Europe with the first
Kinetoscope machines in 1895, and was seen by Georges Méliès, who was
putting on magic shows in his Theatre Robert-Houdin in Paris at the
time. He took up film-making in 1896, and after making imitations of other films from Edison, Lumière, and Robert Paul, he made Escamotage d'un dame chez Robert-Houdin (The Vanishing Lady). This film shows a woman being made to vanish by using the same stop motion
technique as the earlier Edison film. After this, Georges Méliès made
many single shot films using this trick over the next couple of years.
Double exposure
A scene inset inside a circular vignette showing a "dream vision" in Santa Claus (1898)
The other basic technique for trick cinematography involves double exposure of the film in the camera, which was first done by George Albert Smith in July 1898 in the UK. Smith's The Corsican Brothers (1898) was described in the catalogue of the Warwick Trading Company, which took up the distribution of Smith's films in 1900, thus:
"One of the twin brothers returns home from shooting in the Corsican
mountains, and is visited by the ghost of the other twin. By extremely
careful photography the ghost appears *quite transparent*. After
indicating that he has been killed by a sword-thrust, and appealing for
vengeance, he disappears. A ‘vision’ then appears showing the fatal duel
in the snow. To the Corsican's amazement, the duel and death of his
brother are vividly depicted in the vision, and overcome by his
feelings, he falls to the floor just as his mother enters the room."
The ghost effect was done by draping the set in black velvet after
the main action had been shot, and then re-exposing the negative with
the actor playing the ghost going through the actions at the appropriate
point. Likewise, the vision, which appeared within a circular vignette
or matte,
was similarly superimposed over a black area in the backdrop to the
scene, rather than over a part of the set with detail in it, so that
nothing appeared through the image, which seemed quite solid. Smith used
this technique again in Santa Claus (1898).
Georges Méliès first used superimposition on a dark background in La Caverne maudite (The Cave of the Demons) made a couple of months later in 1898, and elaborated it with multiple superimpositions in the one shot in Un Homme de têtes (The Four Troublesome Heads). He created further variations in subsequent films.
Other special techniques
G.A. Smith initiated the technique of reverse motion and also
improved the quality of self-motivating images. This he did by repeating
the action a second time, while filming it with an inverted camera, and
then joining the tail of the second negative to that of the first. The
first films using this were Tipsy, Topsy, Turvy and The Awkward Sign Painter,
the latter which showed a sign painter lettering a sign, and then the
painting on the sign vanishing under the painter's brush. The earliest
surviving example of this technique is Smith's The House That Jack Built,
made before September 1901. Here, a small boy is shown knocking down a
castle just constructed by a little girl out of children's building
blocks. A title then appears, saying "Reversed", and the action is
repeated in reverse, so that the castle re-erects itself under his
blows.
Cecil Hepworth took this improved upon this technique by printing the
negative of the forwards motion backwards frame by frame, so that in
the production of the print the original action was exactly reversed. To
do this, Hepworth built a special printer in which the negative running
through a projector were projected into the gate of a camera through a
special lens giving the same-size image. This arrangement came to be
called a "projection printer", and eventually an "optical printer". With it Hepworth made The Bathers
in 1900, in which bathers who have undressed and jumped into the water
appear to spring backwards out of it, and have their clothes magically
fly back onto their bodies.
The use of different camera speeds also appeared around 1900. Robert Paul's On a Runaway Motor Car through Piccadilly Circus
(1899), had the camera turn so slowly that when the film was projected
at the usual 16 frames per second, the scenery appeared to be passing at
great speed. Cecil Hepworth used the opposite effect in The Indian Chief and the Seidlitz Powder (1901), in which a naïve Red Indian
eats a lot of the fizzy stomach medicine, causing his stomach to expand
and then he then leaps around balloon-like. This was done by cranking
the camera faster than the normal 16 frames per second giving the first "slow motion" effect.
The cinematographer
In the infancy of motion pictures, the cinematographer was usually also the director and the person physically handling the camera. As the art form and technology evolved, a separation between director and camera operator emerged. With the advent of artificial lighting and faster (more light sensitive) film stocks,
in addition to technological advancements in optics, the technical
aspects of cinematography necessitated a specialist in that area.
Cinematography was key during the silent movie era - no sound apart from background music, no dialogue - the films depended on lighting, acting and set.
In 1919, in Hollywood, the new motion picture capital of the world,
one of the first (and still existing) trade societies was formed: the American Society of Cinematographers
(ASC), which stood to recognize the cinematographer's contribution to
the art and science of motion picture making. Similar trade associations
have been established in other countries, too.
The ASC defines cinematography as:
- a creative and interpretive process that culminates in the
authorship of an original work of art rather than the simple recording
of a physical event. Cinematography is not a subcategory of photography.
Rather, photography is but one craft that the cinematographer uses in
addition to other physical, organizational, managerial, interpretive and
image-manipulating techniques to effect one coherent process.
Aspects
Numerous aspects contribute to the art of cinematography, including:
Image sensor and film stock
Cinematography can begin with rolls of film or a digital image sensor. Advancements in film emulsion and grain structure provided a wide range of available film stocks. The selection of a film stock is one of the first decisions made in preparing a typical film production.
Aside from the film gauge selection — 8 mm (amateur), 16 mm (semi-professional), 35 mm (professional) and 65 mm (epic photography, rarely used except in special event venues) — the cinematographer has a selection of stocks in reversal (which, when developed, create a positive image) and negative formats along with a wide range of film speeds (varying sensitivity to light) from ISO 50 (slow, least sensitive to light) to 800 (very fast, extremely sensitive to light) and differing response to color (low saturation, high saturation) and contrast (varying levels between pure black (no exposure) and pure white (complete overexposure).
Advancements and adjustments to nearly all gauges of film created the
"super" formats wherein the area of the film used to capture a single
frame of an image is expanded, although the physical gauge of the film
remains the same. Super 8 mm, Super 16 mm and Super 35 mm all utilize more of the overall film area for the image than their "regular" non-super counterparts.
The larger the film gauge, the higher the overall image resolution clarity and technical quality.
The techniques used by the film laboratory to process the film stock
can also offer a considerable variance in the image produced. By
controlling the temperature and varying the duration in which the film
is soaked in the development chemicals and by skipping certain chemical
processes (or partially skipping all of them), cinematographers can
achieve very different looks from a single film stock in the laboratory.
Some techniques that can be used are push processing, bleach bypass and cross processing.
Although the majority of cinema still uses film, much of modern cinema uses digital cinematography and has no film stocks[citation needed],
but the cameras themselves can be adjusted in ways that go far beyond
the abilities of one particular film stock. They can provide varying
degrees of color sensitivity, image contrast, light sensitivity and so
on. One camera can achieve all the various looks of different emulsions,
although it is heavily argued as to which method of capturing an image
is the "best" method. Digital image adjustments (ISO, contrast etc.) are
executed by estimating the same adjustments that would take place if
actual film were in use, and are thus vulnerable to the cameras sensor
designers perceptions of various film stocks and image adjustment
parameters.
Filters
Filters,
such as diffusion filters or color-effect filters, are also widely used
to enhance mood or dramatic effects. Most photographic filters are made
up of two pieces of optical glass glued together with some form of
image or light manipulation material between the glass. In the case of
color filters, there is often a translucent color medium pressed between
two planes of optical glass. Color filters work by blocking out certain
color wavelengths
of light from reaching the film. With color film, this works very
intuitively wherein a blue filter will cut down on the passage of red,
orange and yellow light and create a blue tint on the film. In
black-and-white photography, color filters are used somewhat counter
intuitively; for instance a yellow filter, which cuts down on blue
wavelengths of light, can be used to darken a daylight sky (by
eliminating blue light from hitting the film, thus greatly underexposing
the mostly blue sky), while not biasing most human flesh tone. Certain
cinematographers, such as Christopher Doyle,
are well known for their innovative use of filters. Filters can be used
in front of the lens or, in some cases, behind the lens for different
effects.
Lens
Lenses can be attached to the camera to give a certain look, feel, or effect by focus, color, etc.
As does the human eye, the camera creates perspective
and spatial relations with the rest of the world. However, unlike one's
eye, a cinematographer can select different lenses for different
purposes. Variation in focal length is one of the chief benefits. The focal length of the lens determines the angle of view and, therefore, the field of view. Cinematographers can choose from a range of wide-angle lenses, "normal" lenses and long focus lenses, as well as macro lenses and other special effect lens systems such as bore-scope
lenses. Wide-angle lenses have short focal lengths and make spatial
distances more obvious. A person in the distance is shown as much
smaller while someone in the front will loom large. On the other hand,
long focus lenses reduce such exaggerations, depicting far-off objects
as seemingly close together and flattening perspective. The differences
between the perspective rendering is actually not due to the focal
length by itself, but by the distance between the subjects and the
camera. Therefore, the use of different focal lengths in combination
with different camera to subject distances creates these different
rendering. Changing the focal length only while keeping the same camera
position doesn't affect perspective but the camera angle of view only. A Zoom lens allows a camera operator to change their focal length within a shot or quickly between setups for shots. As prime lenses
offer greater optical quality and are "faster" (larger aperture
openings, usable in less light) than zoom lenses, they are often
employed in professional cinematography over zoom lenses. Certain scenes
or even types of film making, however, may require the use of zooms for
speed or ease of use, as well as shots involving a zoom move. As in
other photography, the control of the exposed image is done in the lens
with the control of the diaphragm aperture. For proper selection, the cinematographer needs that all lenses be engraved with T-Stop, not f-stop,
so that the eventual light loss due to the glass doesn't affect the
exposure control when setting it using the usual meters. The choice of
the aperture also affects image quality (aberrations) and depth of field
(see below).
Depth of field and focus
A deep focus shot from Citizen Kane (1941): everything, including the hat in the foreground and the boy (young Charles Foster Kane) in the distance, is in sharp focus.
Focal length and diaphragm aperture affect the depth of field
of a scene — that is, how much the background, mid-ground and
foreground will be rendered in "acceptable focus" (only one exact plane
of the image is in precise focus) on the film or video target. Depth of
field (not to be confused with depth of focus)
is determined by the aperture size and the focal distance. A large or
deep depth of field is generated with a very small iris aperture and
focusing on a point in the distance, whereas a shallow depth of field
will be achieved with a large (open) iris aperture and focusing closer
to the lens. Depth of field is also governed by the format size. If one
considers the field of view and angle of view, the smaller the image is,
the shorter the focal length should be, as to keep the same field of
view. Then, the smaller the image is, the more depth of field is
obtained, for the same field of view. Therefore, 70mm has less depth of
field than 35mm for a given field of view, 16mm more than 35mm, and
video cameras even more depth of field than 16mm. As videographers try
to emulate the look of 35 mm film with digital cameras, this is one
issue of frustration - excessive depth of field with digital cameras and
using additional optical devices to reduce that depth of field.
In Citizen Kane (1941), cinematographer Gregg Toland and director Orson Welles
used tighter apertures to create ring every detail of the foreground
and background of the sets in sharp focus. This practice is known as deep focus. Deep focus became a popular cinematographic device from the 1940s onwards in Hollywood. Today, the trend is for more shallow focus.
To change the plane of focus from one object or character to another within a shot is commonly known as a rack focus.
Aspect ratio and framing
The aspect ratio
of an image is the ratio of its width to its height. This can be
expressed either as a ratio of 2 integers, such as 4:3, or in a decimal
format, such as 1.33:1 or simply 1.33.
Different ratios provide different aesthetic effects. Standards for aspect ratio have varied significantly over time.
During the silent era, aspect ratios varied widely, from square, all the way up to the extreme widescreen 4:1 Poly-vision.
However, from the 1910s, silent motion pictures generally settled on
the ratio of 4:3 (1.33). The introduction of sound-on-film briefly
narrowed the aspect ratio, to allow room for a sound stripe. In 1932 a
new standard was introduced, the Academy ratio of 1.37, by means of thickening the frame line.
For years, mainstream cinematographers were limited to using the Academy ratio, but in the 1950s, thanks to the popularity of Cinerama, widescreen ratios were introduced in an effort to pull audiences back into the theater and away from their home television sets. These new widescreen formats provided cinematographers a wider frame within which to compose their images.
Many different proprietary photographic systems were invented and
utilized in the 1950s to create widescreen movies, but one dominates
film today: the anamorphic
process, which optically squeezes the image to photograph twice the
horizontal area to the same size vertical as standard "spherical"
lenses.
The first commonly used anamorphic format was CinemaScope,
which used a 2.35 aspect ratio, although it was originally 2.55.
CinemaScope was used from 1953 to 1967, but due to technical flaws in
the design and its ownership by Fox, several third-party companies, led
by Panavision's technical improvements in the 1950s, now dominate the anamorphic cine lens market.
Changes to SMPTE
projection standards altered the projected ratio from 2.35 to 2.39 in
1970, although this did not change anything regarding the photographic
anamorphic standards; all changes in respect to the aspect ratio of
anamorphic 35 mm photography are specific to camera or projector gate
sizes, not the optical system.
After the "widescreen wars"
of the 1950s, the motion-picture industry settled into 1.85 as a
standard for theatrical projection in the United States and the United
Kingdom. This is a cropped version of 1.37. Europe and Asia opted for
1.66 at first, although 1.85 has largely permeated these markets in
recent decades. Certain "epic" or adventure movies utilized the
anamorphic 2.39.
In the 1990s, with the advent of high-definition video,
television engineers created the 1.78 (16:9) ratio as a mathematical
compromise between the theatrical standard of 1.85 and television's
1.33, as it was not practical to produce a traditional CRT television
tube with a width of 1.85. Until that point, nothing had ever been
originated in 1.78. Today, this is a standard for high-definition video
and for widescreen television. Some cinema films are now shot using HDTV
cameras.
Lighting
Light is necessary to create an image exposure on a frame of film or
on a digital target (CCD, etc.). The art of lighting for cinematography
goes far beyond basic exposure, however, into the essence of visual
storytelling. Lighting contributes considerably to the emotional
response an audience has watching a motion picture. As once a director
Sahin Michael Derun said " The difference between porn and erotica is
the lighting", simply pointing out the importance of lighting in
cinematography.
Camera movement
Main article: Cinematic techniques
Camera on a small motor vehicle representing a large one
Cinematography can not only depict a moving subject but can use a
camera, which represents the audience's viewpoint or perspective, that
moves during the course of filming. This movement plays a considerable
role in the emotional language of film images and the audience's
emotional reaction to the action. Techniques range from the most basic
movements of panning
(horizontal shift in viewpoint from a fixed position; like turning your
head side-to-side) and tilting (vertical shift in viewpoint from a
fixed position; like tipping your head back to look at the sky or down
to look at the ground) to dollying (placing the camera on a moving platform to move it closer or farther from the subject), tracking (placing the camera on a moving platform to move it to the left or right), craning
(moving the camera in a vertical position; being able to lift it off
the ground as well as swing it side-to-side from a fixed base position),
and combinations of the above.
Cameras have been mounted to nearly every imaginable form of transportation.
Most cameras can also be handheld,
that is held in the hands of the camera operator who moves from one
position to another while filming the action. Personal stabilizing
platforms came into being in the late 1970s through the invention of Garrett Brown, which became known as the Steadicam.
The Steadicam is a body harness and stabilization arm that connects to
the camera, supporting the camera while isolating it from the operator's
body movements. After the Steadicam patent expired in the early 1990s,
many other companies began manufacturing their concept of the personal
camera stabilizer.
Special effects
Main article: Special effect
The first special effects in the cinema were created while the film was being shot. These came to be known as "in-camera" effects. Later, optical and digital effects were developed so that editors and visual effects artists could more tightly control the process by manipulating the film in post-production.
For examples of many in-camera special effects, see the work of early filmmaker Georges Méliès.
Frame rate selection
Main article: Frame rate
Motion picture images are presented to an audience at a constant speed. In the theater it is 24 frames per second, in NTSC (US) Television it is 30 frames per second (29.97 to be exact), in PAL (Europe) television it is 25 frames per second. This speed of presentation does not vary.
However, by varying the speed at which the image is captured, various
effects can be created knowing that the faster or slower recorded image
will be played at a constant speed.
For instance, time-lapse
photography is created by exposing an image at an extremely slow rate.
If a cinematographer sets a camera to expose one frame every minute for
four hours, and then that footage is projected at 24 frames per second, a
four hour event will take 10 seconds to present, and one can present
the events of a whole day (24 hours) in just one minute.
The inverse of this, if an image is captured at speeds above that at
which they will be presented, the effect is to greatly slow down (slow motion)
the image. If a cinematographer shoots a person diving into a pool at
96 frames per second, and that image is played back at 24 frames per
second, the presentation will take 4 times as long as the actual event.
Extreme slow motion, capturing many thousands of frames per second can
present things normally invisible to the human eye, such as bullets in flight and shock-waves travel ling through media, a potentially powerful cinematography-cal technique.
In motion pictures the manipulation of time and space is a
considerable contributing factor to the narrative storytelling tools. Film editing
plays a much stronger role in this manipulation, but frame rate
selection in the photography of the original action is also a
contributing factor to altering time. For example, Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times
was shot at "silent speed" (18 fps) but projected at "sound speed" (24
fps), which makes the slapstick action appear even more frenetic.
Speed tamping,
or simply "tamping", is a process whereby the capture frame rate of the
camera changes over time. For example, if in the course of 10 seconds
of capture, the capture frame rate is adjusted from 60 frames per second
to 24 frames per second, when played back at the standard film rate of
24 frames per second, a unique time-manipulation effect is achieved. For
example, someone pushing a door open and walking out into the street
would appear to start off in slow-motion,
but in a few seconds later within the same shot the person would appear
to walk in "real-time" (normal speed). The opposite speed-tamping is
done in The Matrix
when Noe re-enters the Matrix for the first time to see the Oracle. As
he comes out of the warehouse "load-point", the camera zooms in to Neo
at normal speed but as it gets closer to Noe's face, time seems to slow
down, foreshadowing the manipulation of time itself within the Matrix later in the movie.
Personnel
A camera crew from the First Motion Picture Unit
In descending order of seniority, the following staff are involved:
- Director of Photography also called cinematographer
- Camera Operator also called cameraman
- First Assistant camera also called focus puller
- Second Assistant camera also called clapper loader
In the film industry, the cinematographer
is responsible for the technical aspects of the images (lighting, lens
choices, composition, exposure, filtration, film selection), but works
closely with the director to ensure that the artistic aesthetics are supporting the director's vision of the story being told. The cinematographers are the heads of the camera, grip and lighting crew on a set, and for this reason they are often called directors of photography or DPs. In British tradition, if the DOP actually operates the camera him/herself they are called the cinematographer.
On smaller productions it is common for one person to perform all these
functions alone. The career progression usually involves climbing up
the ladder from seconding, firsting, eventually to operating the camera.
Directors of photography make many creative and interpretive
decisions during the course of their work, from per-production to
post-production, all of which affect the overall feel and look of the
motion picture. Many of these decisions are similar to what a photographer
needs to note when taking a picture: the cinematographer controls the
film choice itself (from a range of available stocks with varying
sensitivities to light and color), the selection of lens focal lengths,
aperture exposure and focus. Cinematography, however, has a temporal aspect (see persistence of vision),
unlike still photography, which is purely a single still image. It is
also bulkier and more strenuous to deal with movie cameras, and it
involves a more complex array of choices. As such a cinematographer
often needs to work co-cooperatively with more people than does a
photographer, who could frequently function as a single person. As a
result, the cinematographer's job also includes personnel management and
logistical organization.
Evolution of technology: new definitions
Traditionally the term "cinematography" referred to working with
motion-picture film emulsion, but it is now largely synonymous with videography and digital video due to the popularity of digital cinematography.
Modern digital image processing
has also made it possible to radically modify pictures from how they
were originally captured. This has allowed new disciplines to encroach
on some of the choices that were once the cinematographer's exclusive
domain.
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What is Cinematography in Film?
What is cinematography? Well, the name comes from combining
two Greek words: kinema, which means movement, and graphein, which means
to record. In film, cinematography refers to the photographing of the
movie itself. The person in charge of this is the cinematographer, also
known as the director or photography or the DP.
Understanding Cinematography
In the hierarchy of a film set, the director's two key creative
people in the crew are the art director and the cinematographer. The art
director is in charge of the art department and the cinematographer is
in charge of the camera, electric and grip departments. The camera
department maintains the camera and has it ready for the shot while the
grips and electrics handle the lighting. Electrics set the lights and
run power to them and grips shape the light by using flags and
diffusion. Grips also provide support to camera department when there is
camera movement for the scene. An example of this is a dolly shot.
The Cinematographer
The cinematographer is one of the most important people that will be
hired for a film. The visual look of your film is heavily dependent on
who you hire. If you ever find yourself in a hiring position, then make
sure that your potential DP has a reel for you to see. You want to be
absolutely sure that you're hiring the right person.
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